Flicker
by WingedFlight
Summary: When the Doctor learns that Jenny is still alive, his search is delayed by a mysterious power outage - one that turns out to be more serious than he'd first thought. Future!Doctor -Complete-
1. An Unexpected Detour

_**A/N: **So, yes, I said I was writing a Whofic and here it is. A very interesting experience, because I have certainly never written an adventure sort of story like this before, and while I think it worked, you'll have to be the judge of that. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this finished, especially to Metonomia for being such a great Beta. _

_The whole fic has been completed, so I'll be posting a new chapter every couple of days. The story features a Future!Doctor; which one it is doesn't really matter. A lot of 10's personality managed to work his way into this Doctor, so you'll have to excuse me for that. _

_Anyhow, hope you enjoy. Allons-y!_

_

* * *

__Chapter One: An Unexpected Detour_

It had been raining heavily all afternoon, a pounding rain that kept everyone indoors with no thoughts of venturing into the cold and wet. Wilfred Mott would normally have chosen an afternoon such as this to sit by the fire and reminisce, only it was little Melanie's birthday, so he and Silvia had bundled into the car and driven through nearly-deserted streets to Donna and Shaun's house.

Wilf's great-granddaughter was a bright, cheerful girl, and she had shrieked with laughter the moment he stepped through the door shaking his head like a wet dog.

"You shouldn't have come," Donna protested, "not in this rain." But she was smiling as he handed her his coat.

Silvia trailed Donna into the kitchen, leaving Wilf with Melanie as he untied his shoes. "'Allo, you," he told her, and she giggled and darted into the living room.

He set his shoes aside and was about to follow when there was a knock at the door.

That in itself was unusual – there was absolutely nothing wrong with the doorbell – but coupled with the sheeting rain, Wilf was just a little suspicious over anyone who might possibly be outside. Not only that, but he was fairly sure Donna had not invited anyone else to their little party. All the same, with a light shrug of his shoulders, he stepped over the damp spots on the mat and opened the door.

It was a girl who stood there, dressed in nothing but a t-shirt and jeans. Her blond hair was plastered to her head, and although she was completely soaked, the girl seemed quite unaffected by the cold.

"Hello," she said promptly in a breathless sort of voice, not at all minding Wilf's stare. "Would this be Donna Noble's house?"

"Temple-Noble," Wilf corrected, and moved aside automatically for the girl to step in. She did so, and heaved a brisk sigh of relief. "That is so much better. Terribly inconvenient, that rain. On the other hand, I'm sure the plants are enjoying it. Absolutely brilliant, rain is. Wouldn't you agree?"

Wilf found he didn't quite know what to say, so he just nodded. There was a pause, during which the girl beamed at him expectantly, and then asked hesitantly, "Is Donna here?"

"Oh, yes – yes, in the kitchen," Wilf answered, and then, coming to his senses, "Who should I say it is?"

"Jenny," the girl replied promptly. "I'm a friend from Donna's travels."

The stirrings of a warning sounded in the back of Wilf's mind, and he frowned uncertainly. "Egypt? Or-"

"Oh no!" the girl laughed. "I don't suppose she told you about the Doctor? Because I'm his daughter, you see, and they thought I was dead so they left, only I really wasn't – although for that matter, I thought I was dead as well, so I don't really blame them or anything, only it's terribly hard to find the Doctor after you've lost him, and I've been looking for absolutely ages, and-"

It was then that Wilf realized what she was saying. "You have to leave," he said fervently, and nodded out the open door at the street. "And never come again."

She blinked in surprise. "Sorry?"

"Donna can't remember, not ever. If she does, her mind will burn her up. The Doctor brought her back to us, told us she'd die if she ever remembered. You have to leave now before she sees you!"

Jenny's eyes grew wide as he spoke and she nodded slowly in miserable fear. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and stepped towards the door before turning back with hope in her eyes. "You – you don't know Martha, do you?"

Wilf was about to tell her that he had never heard of Martha before, but at that moment, a familiar and most unwanted voice came from the hall behind him. "Granddad, are you going to be standing by the door all day? We're almost ready for Melanie's birthday dinner and – oh, I'm sorry. Hello, I'm Donna. You are -?"

Wilf froze, but Jenny just smiled sadly and stepped out the door into the pouring rain. "Friend of the neighbours," she said quickly. "Got the wrong house in all the rain. I'm really sorry. So very, very sorry." Then, with one last tight smile, she turned and dashed off into the street.

"Well, I like that!" Donna huffed, coming to stand at Wilf's side. "A friend of the neighbours. She's running right to the end of the street! Some people – say, that reminds me of the time Karen..."

Wilf tuned out Donna's chatter as he watched the girl make her way to the street corner and pause. Alone, looking for her dad with no one to help her – he almost stepped out to call her back and offer what assistance he could, but then she was gone, swallowed up by the rain, and so he closed the door in one heavy movement.

-

On those rare occasions that the TARDIS did not follow the Doctor's coordinates, it almost always meant there was something important he needed to check out. Very often this would lead to a conflict of some sort, and more often than not, a great deal of running. So when the TARDIS decided to forego a trip to Hawaii in 1974 and travel to London, 2010 instead, the Doctor did the most sensible thing he could. He checked the soles of his running shoes and double-knotted the laces for good measure. Then he strolled outside.

It was a grey-ish sort of day, and judging by the damp marks on the pavement, it had been raining recently. This, being London, was not unusual, but all the same, the Doctor took note. Always better to take note of the unimportant things than to miss out on the really noteworthy details.

And there, right in front of him, her mouth hanging open in undeniable shock, was one such important detail. One very, very important detail. A Donna Noble important detail.

"That – that box. It just appeared out of nowhere," she gasped, and huffed a disbelieving laugh. "It – I'm sure I've seen it before. I've seen that box before. Appearing and disappearing. But – but boxes don't do that!"

_Twice,_ the Doctor thought heavily as he walked slowly towards her. He kept his gaze steady, reassuring, even as Donna's eyes became more wild and fearful and confused.

"There was a man I used to know – a man with a box like that. I – he – how did I forget him? I'd forgotten him." She looked away from the distance and directly into his eyes. "I'd forgotten the Doctor. He – he made me forget him!" Tears began to leak down her cheeks. "Oh my – oh my -! What am I-? What-? What?"

"Donna," he said calmly, and lay a hand on her arm. Her expression was chilling – one of absolute horror and disbelief.

"I'd forgotten," she whispered. "I'd forgotten. Why did he make me forget? It isn't fair. It's not fair – fair – fair – fair – _fair!_" She broke off in a choked gasp and seemed to see him for the first time. "Who are you? What are you doing with the Doctor's TARDIS?"

_Twice,_ rang the voice in his head, _Only twice. _"Donna," he said again, sadly. "Donna, it's me. I've changed – you understand about regeneration now."

"Oh," she breathed, and smiled feebly. "Yes, I understand. What I don't understand is why you, Mr. Time Lord, go to all the trouble of wiping my mind just to come back and make me remember again! Defeats the purpose, doesn't it? What do you say to that, space boy? Huh? Nothing? After doing _that_ to my mind without permission. Mind-rape, that is. Mind-rape." For a moment the anger faded and he could see plainly the fear inside her. "I don't have much time now, do I?"

He knew what she was asking. Sucking in a deep breath, he shook his head.

"Only twice," she muttered, and wrinkled her nose at him in a way that made him ache for all those adventures the two of them had had together. "You couldn't have given me a few more, could you?"

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Ah, well," she sighed. "Are you all alone now? Tell me you've found someone else, after losing so many – oh!" Her jaw dropped and she stared at the Doctor in disbelief. "Jenny!"

"What?"

"Jenny! I –" A grimace crossed her face, and Donna shuddered violently. _Twice, _the Doctor thought. _Only twice, and time is almost up. _

Donna was gripping his arm. "Doctor, it's Jenny. I –I saw –" Another grimace. "She came to the house. She –" A yelp, and a gasp – Donna's hands flew to her head. "Alive. Jenny's a-" And then came the yell that seemed to drown out everything else and a wave of golden light blasted from Donna's head. The Doctor jumped forward as she crumpled, catching her the moment before she hit the ground. She hung limp in his arms, a pale shadow of all she had once been. If he closed his eyes, he could almost see her again, standing in defiance at his side, ready to fight against the world for what she knew was right. And now... In the moment before a tear could fall, he wrinkled his nose and took a deep breath to steady himself; then he laid Donna carefully down upon the pavement. With another deep breath he stood again, and after a whispered goodbye, he left her.

_Only twice,_ he thought as he stepped into the TARDIS and wiped at his cheek. _Only twice will her mind project outwards to protect her. The next time she remembers – _

But there wouldn't be a next time, he decided firmly. Not ever. "Do you hear me?" he shouted at the TARDIS angrily, and she hummed back at him softly and with remorse.


	2. Back to School

_Chapter Two: Back to School_

For a very long time the Doctor stood in the console room as the TARDIS drifted through the time stream. His ship hummed quietly, understanding that he needed time – and time she could give him. How long they drifted, neither knew, until finally the Doctor roused himself from his stupor with a single word.

"Jenny."

-

The Doctor checked once on the monitor after he landed, waiting until a passing girl had turned the next corner before dusting off his hands and jumping around the console to the door. "Back soon," he called, although there was really no need. He really did miss having someone to talk to.

With a friendly pat on the wooden planking, the Doctor locked the door, flung the key into the air, caught it with his other hand, and slipped it into his pocket. Glancing about once more to be sure of the absence of any Donna Noble-like problems, he picked a direction at random and began to walk at a brisk pace.

_Jenny,_ he thought, and then, again, _Jenny. Jenny – Jenny – Jenny._ But where to look? The TARDIS, usually so adept at locking onto specific persons, was unable to pinpoint his daughter's location. The Doctor had tried to go to the place and time that Donna had seen Jenny – he'd learnt the details of that during a very helpful discussion with Wilf – but there was a blip in the time stream and the TARDIS had been unable to land. Phoning both Martha and Jack had been equally unhelpful. That was when the Doctor had finally let the TARDIS have free reign, for if she was able to bring him to both Jenny's birth and Donna's clue, surely she'd bring him somewhere helpful this time.

And yet – the Doctor looked up at the large, beige school that stood before him and inwardly sighed. He had had bad experiences at schools. Nevertheless, if the TARDIS had taken the trouble to bring him here, he was fairly sure this was where he was meant to be.

There seemed to be some sort of parent information evening going on, judging by the full parking lot and the procession of adults trickling in through the main doors. With a mental shrug, the Doctor joined the crowd, allowing himself to be swept in through the doors, where a pamphlet was thrust into his hands, and on towards the gymnasium.

The lights had already been dimmed as the Doctor took his seat in the middle of the back row. With cautious interest he crossed his legs and flipped through the pamphlet. There was not too much information there, other than the school's name and a list of teaching staff. On the back was the evening's program, but even that was reduced to '_A video introduction in the gym, followed by the parent-teacher interviews._'

Well. He was a parent. Hadn't known he was for some time, and was extremely out of practise since the time before that, but all the same, a parent he was. The Doctor flipped back to the list of teachers and tried to decide which ones he should 'interview' for information on Jenny.

Before he could decide, the dim lights flickered once and shut off completely, casting the gym in total and complete darkness. There was a moment of silent shock, followed by some fervent whispers and rustling fabric, and then tiny white pinpricks of light as people flicked open their cell phones. The Doctor jumped to his feet, his sonic screwdriver already in hand, and was about to scan the light fixtures up above when a male voice began shouting over the noise of the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, _please_ remain calm and in your seats. We have just sent a man down to – ah, here we are." With another feeble flicker, the lights flashed on once more. The Doctor resumed his seat slowly, staring suspiciously at the fixtures above him, but they seemed to be functioning fine.

He turned his attention to the front of the gym, where a tall, dark man stood in the middle of the stage, presumably the man who had been speaking just as the lights had turned on. As the noise in the room quietened, the man straightened his tie, tapped the mike once, and began.

"I must apologize for the inconvenience tonight. The school has been having a few minor issues with the lights this past week, although I assure you we are working hard to solve this problem before it affects classes. Now, carrying on, I am Mr. Johanson, principal of the school, and I welcome you..."

The Doctor paid little attention to the principal's speech. The lights had been acting up all week, the man had said, and yet the problem had not yet been fixed. The school did not look old – in fact, it looked relatively new – and the Doctor could not understand why the lights might be so problematic in the first place, let alone unable to be fixed in a week's time.

On stage, the principal had finished his speech, and a video began to run on the white screen. It was a classic promotion video, and the Doctor paid little attention until, without warning, the video gave way to grey fuzz and a loud burst of static. A moment later the lights shut off again.

The Doctor was on his feet, his chair tipped over behind him, almost before anyone else in the gym could realize what had happened. A frail hand grasped at his arm, and an old woman's voice was asking in near panic, "It's just the power again, isn't it? Just a power outage?"

"If that's what it is," the Doctor replied as a chill ran down his back, "then why has the video projector not shut off?"

At the front of the room, the square of chaotic fuzz was still being projected onto the screen, and the sound of static still echoed across the gymnasium. The Doctor gently unlaced the woman's fingers from his sleeve and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the projector. According to the readings, the projector wasn't even on.

"But it is, it is!" the Doctor shouted in frustration. The screwdriver went back into his pocket and, using the little light available from the screen, he made his way past several stunned people to the door. A moment later he was out the gym and into the hall, using the screwdriver to scan for the main circuitry system of the school.

So it was that he was out of earshot when the static in the gym gave way to a mechanical voice saying, _"The Doctor... Where is the Doctor..?"_


	3. Technical Difficulties

_**A/N: **Wow, thanks for the great response on these first two chapters. To show my appreciation - chapter three, and some more plot. Yippee!_

_-_

_Chapter Three: Technical Difficulties_

Evan Kirke was a physics student teacher, and in being one, he felt that this meant he knew a good deal more about electrical circuits than, say, anyone in the English, Maths, or Art departments. So when the lights shut off in the middle of the video presentation – a presentation that the school board had put a good whack of money towards – Evan felt that it was his solemn duty to see what he could do to help.

Checking the projector had been no help, for strangely enough, the thing seemed to be operating on some sort of back-up power system, continuing to run even after they had unplugged it from the wall socket. All the buttons seemed to have frozen, too, and neither Evan nor the chemistry teacher he had been helping had been all that keen about breaking it open. Projectors cost money, after all, and there were certainly better ways for the school budget to be spent.

Finally, Evan had decided to go check out the electrical panel, just in case the problem with the lights was a burnt fuse or a loose wire or something. He wasn't really sure it would be something like that, but his knowledge on electrical circuits was shakier than he pretended, so he was able to convince himself how likely it would be a quick fix – and then he'd be the one to receive credit for saving the parent information night!

It was strange walking through the hallways when the lights were off. The lockers seemed larger than normal, and rather intimidating, and Evan was reminded of a horror movie he'd once seen (against his will – he was not the type to enjoy horror movies) in which the murderer hid inside a locker, waiting to jump out at unsuspecting students. With a shudder, Evan walked a little faster, and kept his hands in fists just in case.

The emergency lights sent an eerie glow across the hall, but several of them were not working due to dead batteries. Evan just hoped there would be a light somewhere near the control box so he could see.

He had been priming himself for finding all sorts of messes – frozen controls, sparking wires – but when he rounded the corner to see a shadowy figure bent over the control box, Evan stopped dead. His first thought was that someone must have gotten there before him. His second – and this came at the same time as Evan noticed the buzzing, glowing tool the man held over the circuitry – was that this man must have sabotaged the lights.

But what to do? Running for help was going to be difficult in the dark, as was calling for someone. Evan briefly considered attempting to overpower the man, but he was a skinny, awkward type, and would likely just make a mess of it. Very well, then. He would have to back off slowly, and hope he hadn't been noticed.

Just as he decided this, the back of his shoe caught on the corner of a bucket, resulting in a loud, metal scraping sound that echoed through the corridor. Evan winced and froze as the man spun about, deftly shoving the tool into his coat pocket.

"Who are you?" Evan forced out, deciding it was better to be confrontational than to act as if it had been he who was caught sneaking around in the dark. Unfortunately, he had asked this at precisely the same time as the stranger, so there was an awkward pause.

"Who are you?" the man asked again. He sounded frustrated, as though Evan had interrupted something important. _Ha!_ Evan thought.

"You tell me," Evan responded boldly.

"I really have no idea," the man replied. "One, it is dark and I can't see your face. Two, I do not recognize your voice and do not believe we've met before. And four – no, three, you haven't told me your name."

"Evan Kirke," Evan admitted rather sheepishly. "I'm the physics student teacher."

"Ah, physics!" the man exclaimed. "Gotta love physics! All those wave lengths and mechanics and engineering and circuitry – say, maybe you could help me with this – I'm the Doctor by the way, nice to meet you-" Evan's hand was encompassed by the man's and shaken rather enthusiastically, "and anyhow, the electrical panel doesn't seem to be working properly – I flick the switch, nothing happens, that sort of thing. Only it doesn't make sense – should be impossible, right? Right. So-"

"I'm sorry," Evan interrupted. "But you're a doctor of what, exactly?"

"Oh, this and that. A little bit of everything, really. I dabble a lot. Now-"

Evan frowned, but said nothing more as the man, this doctor, continued on with his analysis. When he finished, he paused breathlessly and waited almost eagerly for Evan's response.

"I'm sorry," Evan mumbled, "but do you mind repeating that last bit? The bit about your conclusion, I mean." Not that he wanted to admit it, but he hadn't been able to make out much at all of the man's speech.

There was a sigh, followed by a brief, "Basically, I have no idea what is going on. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be going on at all."

"Ah." There was a pause, and then Evan asked timidly, "I'm sorry, who did you say you were?"

"The Doctor," the man replied.

"Doctor who?"

"Just 'the Doctor'", the man answered with a long suffering sigh.

"But who are you?"

"I'm a traveller, a know-it-all, a walking encyclopaedia, a circuit systems-dabbler, a science-minded brainiac, an adventure-seeker, a runner, a hope-for-the-best-er... one time I was a nurse-maid – let's hope that never happens again..." Seeming to sense that Evan's mouth was hanging open, he ended shortly, "And I'm a parent."

"Ah," Evan tried to say, although it may have ended up a good deal more garbled, due to the fact that his jaw was still hanging. "So, uh, 'the Doctor' – what do we do now?"

"That, Evan Kirke," said the Doctor, "is one very excellent question."

-

The room was dark; only occasionally would a flicker of light illuminate the scattered tables and tipped-back chairs, sending shadows scurrying to dark corners. At one such table, a girl was bent over the artificial glow of a computer screen, squinting at the numbers and code displayed.

"It doesn't make sense," she was whispering as she scrolled through the information. "No sense at all. If only-" But whatever it was the girl was wishing for, she did not say it aloud, but buried her head in her hands with a groan.

The computer's hum paused, and then increased. Slowly, one key of the keyboard lowered, clicked, and shot upward. Then another, and another. The girl's head shot up in disbelief to watch as words were typed across the screen.

_The Doctor... Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

For a moment, the girl froze, her lips moving soundlessly as she read the words. Then, angrily, she shouted, "No! No, no, no!" She scrambled beneath the desk, pulling out the plug of the computer. The light did not die, nor did the typing cease, even when the keyboard was disconnected from the computer.

"No!" the girl shouted again in frustration, and dropped back into her seat to watch the words spread across the screen.

_...Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._


	4. Rather Alarming

_**A/N: **Again, thanks for the reviews, they really do make my day. (Really. They do.) Um... so if you're interested, I have a poll on my page. Now on to chapter four..._

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_Chapter Four: Rather Alarming_

They were halfway to the gym when Evan stopped suddenly. The Doctor turned impatiently, but before he could say anything, Evan asked breathlessly, "The Doctor – you're the Doctor, right?"

The Doctor sighed heavily. "Yes, we've established that already. Now-"

"But if you're the Doctor, then it's you the machine meant!"

A chill crept its way down from the Doctor's neck. "What machine?"

"The projector! After it stopped working, it went staticy, but then there was a voice asking for a Doctor – it must have meant you!"

"Yes," the Doctor replied calmly, even though his head was spinning. "Which means there is more to this than an electrical virus – something sentient is controlling the electrical systems."

"And it knows you?"

"Knows me or knows of me," the Doctor replied, scratching his cheek absently. "And I'm not sure which is worse."

The hall was silent as both thought on this, the absence of a generator hum startlingly noticeable.

"I suppose," the Doctor began slowly, but whatever it was he supposed was never said, for his words were interrupted by the unmistakable tinny ring of a cell phone.

The Doctor stared at Evan, who patted his pockets before drawing out a silver mobile. He flipped it open, glanced at the screen, and nodded to the Doctor. "Not mine."

Not his? But then... An agonizing second passed before the Doctor realized what he meant. There was a mad scramble through his pockets and he finally found Martha's old cell phone in the lower left hand pocket. He held it up triumphantly, just as it stopped ringing.

"No, no, no!"

He flipped open the phone and pressed the CALL BACK button. For a moment there was nothing but the monotonous ring... the Doctor wondered if he was too late... and then, oh sweet relief, a familiar voice on the other end.

"Doctor? Doctor!"

-

Silvia was in the kitchen, cleaning up after a late supper. Wilf stomped into the room and set his telescope down with a sigh.

"I told you it was too cloudy," Silvia began. "But of course you never listen. I could have used some help with these dishes for once, but no – you had to huff-and-puff your way to the top of that hill only to realize I was right for once."

Wilf decided it would most likely be best if he neglected to mention that the only reason he had gone up there was to escape helping in the kitchen.

"Now, if you'll put away the telescope, we can figure out what to do with ourselves for the rest of the evening. Not much we can do, really – I do hate late meals..."

"I'll turn on the telly," Wilf announced, and left the room in a hurry. Silvia made a token protest, but Wilf paid her no heed.

The lights began to flicker as he found the remote, and in the other room, Silvia began going on about the unreliability of power companies these days. Again, he ignored this, settling down in his favourite chair before turning on the television set.

Whatever it was making problems with the lights was also affecting the television. Wilf tried changing channels, but all he was getting was grey fuzz and a loud hiss of static mixed with a disembodied voice. He flicked through all the channels, one after another, but nothing seemed to be on.

"Stop a sec." It was Silvia in the doorway, a tea towel and half-dried glass in hand. "Listen. What's that voice saying?"

Now that he listened, Wilf realized the voice he had been hearing wasn't just the audio to a television program. Instead, it was a phrase repeating on a loop.

_Doctor... Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

Again and again, on and on, the same voice repeating. With a shaking finger, Wilf pressed down hard on the power button.

Nothing happened.

With a hiss of electricity, the lights shut off, leaving Wilf and Silvia staring at each other in horror in the dim glow of the television set.

_Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

Wilf licked his lips nervously and took a deep breath. "Silvia... if Donna sees this...!"

-

It was certainly a relief to hear Martha's voice on the other end of the phone line, when the Doctor had half-expected to hear a mechanical voice repeating his name. He allowed himself to relax, just a little, and grinned to let Evan know it was all right.

"'Allo, Martha! How's the world today? Please say no alien attacks. I really can't stand two attacks at once, not today." Not with what seemed to be an electrical virus on the loose, not when – by Rassilon, he'd almost forgotten Jenny!

Martha interrupted his mental self-beration (Was that a word? It probably wasn't even a word). "Doctor, there's something strange going on. All the television stations, radio stations, lights, phone lines... everything electrical is freezing up! Nothing we do can turn it off or make it work again. And it's all the same problem, because everything's acting the same way. Doctor, they're all asking-"

"I know," he interrupted. "They're all asking for me. Or rather, the single virus is asking."

Beside him, Evan perked up as he realized the Doctor was talking about the electrical problems.

"A virus?" Martha repeated. "Is that what it is? But-" A hiss of static drowned out her words, and for a moment the Doctor was afraid he had lost the connection.

"Martha? Martha! Are you there?"

Faint, behind the static, he could hear her calling his name; then suddenly the static was gone again. "...got Jack to boost the signal, but we don't have much time, Doctor. What do you want us to do?"

He spoke quickly, intent on getting the information before the connection broke again. "Do you know where the problems started, Martha? Give me a location."

On the other end he could hear Martha snapping the question to someone else, and then, after a tense few seconds, she was back and reading off a street name. "Somewhere there," she finished. "We don't know exactly where."

On a hunch, the Doctor turned and repeated the address to Evan, who frowned in confusion. "But that's the street just outside."

"Good ol' TARDIS," the Doctor said into the phone. "Brought me right to the scene of the crime."

"But what are you going to do?" Martha asked. "And wha-" A hiss of static again interrupted her words.

"Martha? Martha!"

But the connection had already been severed. The Doctor closed the phone with a grimace and started off down the hall.

Evan hurried behind him. "So – it's a virus then? What are you going to do?"

The Doctor pursed his lips and quickening his pace. "I'm going directly to the heart of the problem. We're taking a look at the projector."


	5. A Curious Conversation

_Chapter Five: A Curious Conversation_

Wilf had never known Silvia to drive so fast before. It was like she was a woman possessed, weaving through lanes, careening through yellow lights, and skidding around corners, and all Wilf could do was cling to his arm rests and pray that nothing got in their way. He tried squeezing his eyes tight, but that was almost worse because then he didn't know what was happening.

"Are – are we almost there?" he asked as Silvia narrowly avoided a trash bin that had been blown into the road.

"Five more minutes," she assured him.

Yes, he had certainly never known Silvia to drive so fast, but then, one never knew what a mother would do in protection of her child.

Five minutes, she had said, and one minute had passed. Wilf tried to relax, for if nothing had happened to them so far, it was unlikely something would.

At that thought, almost as though by thinking it he had caused it, the dashboard lights blinked and went out. Then the engine groaned and shut off, leaving the car gliding forward on momentum only.

Silvia twisted the wheel violently to bring the car to the side of the road before braking hard. With a screech of rubber on pavement, the car came to a sudden halt. Wilf slowly unhooked his hands from the armrests as he sucked in a deep breath.

"The car just... shut off," Silvia murmured in disbelief. She took the keys out and inserted them again, twisting them in an attempt to restart the engine. Nothing happened.

"It just shut off," Wilf repeated in confusion. Not knowing what else to do, he thumped a fist down on the dashboard.

The car's navigation system flashed on, showing nothing but a blue screen and white text that flashed upon the screen as the robotic voice read out,

"_Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..."_

A chill ran down Wilf's back and he looked at Silvia with wide eyes. "I think we'd better walk, then."

"Run, how 'bout," Silvia replied tightly, and removed the keys once more.

-

Most of the parents had already left the gym by the time the Doctor returned. The few that were left had gathered in a tight knot around the projector, although none seemed to be working on it anymore. Mr. Johanson was just off to the side, whispering fervently with two other teachers. They looked up in surprise as the Doctor ran past, whipping out his sonic screwdriver and pushing through the huddle of adults.

"Excuse _me_!" huffed one man, but the Doctor ignored him and bent over the machine.

_Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

Interesting; the machine really was asking for him. The Doctor tuned out the voice as he used his screwdriver to pull out the screws and open the panel on the projector's side.

"Pardon me, sir," the principal had made his way to the Doctor's side. "I do hope you realize this is property of the school that you are now disassembling."

"Is it really?" the Doctor replied, pulling out wires and pointing his screwdriver at the innards. "I hadn't noticed."

The man fell silent, being much too clever to have missed the strong sense of sarcasm in the Doctor's words. The others seemed to follow the principal's lead, almost reduced to holding their breath as the screwdriver scanned.

The Doctor's hopes were quickly sinking. The screwdriver hadn't found anything yet, and it was unlikely to find something soon. He flipped the projector upside down and opened a second panel on the bottom.

_Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

"Come on, come on," the Doctor muttered, and flicked the screwdriver on again. It hummed and whirred with effort, the end blue with energy.

"Doctor," Evan huffed, pushing through the people to make his way to the Doctor's side. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"A virus. A lot like a computer virus, only it takes over anything and everything with a power source – communication channels, projectors, computers, television..." the Doctor trailed off and raised his eyes. "And lights. It isn't from the projector at all. It got into the school by the lights."

Everyone in the gym had been silent all through the Doctor's explanation. Then, cautiously, the principal said, "Mr. Kirke here called you "Doctor". Are you... the doctor this thing means?"

The Doctor stared at the principal, assessing the man as he shifted uneasily. Then he nodded just once and turned back to the projector.

It was only then he realized the end of the screwdriver was still glowing, even though he could have sworn he had turned it off.

"No! Oh, come on!" Hitting the screwdriver against his palm didn't help, and in frustration the Doctor threw it down beside the projector.

_Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._

Angrily, Evan brought his fist down hard on the machine. A loud rattle of loose wires came from the projector, and the voice paused. Evan looked up at the Doctor in astonishment. "Did it just...?"

_Doctor... WHERE IS THE DOCTOR..._

"But he's right _here_!"

The voice stopped again. The Doctor paused to suck in one deep breath before turning to look at the trembling woman to his right. "I'm sorry," she whispered as he caught her eye. "I'm sorry. The voice..."

_Where are you, Doctor._

The Doctor sucked in another deep breath and looked around at all the frightened people. It would be so easy, _so easy_, to just ignore the voice and its words and continue working. But then what would he do? The virus was not in the projectors; it had originated elsewhere on this street, and could take much too long to find. He stepped forward toward the screen, out of the knot of people.

"I'm here."

_Come to me, Doctor._

"I don't know where you are."

_Follow the light._

From behind him came a gabble of questions. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Is it some sort of joke?" "Is he actually going to go?"

The Doctor stared hard at the screen until the humans were once again silent. Then, "Follow the light? What do you mean by that?"

_Follow the light._

Behind him in the hall, the lights flickered on again, casting a faint glow across the gym. The Doctor turned to look back through the doors, ran his fingers through his hair, and raised his eyes to the ceiling. He turned back to the screen.

_Follow the light._

Right. The Doctor stepped back to the projector to pick up his humming screwdriver, and then pushed through the humans and made his way to the door. No one made a sound as they watched him go, which was just as well, really. The Doctor certainly did not need a babble of mindless panic and excuses at this time.

He had taken only a few steps down the hall when there came a patter of footsteps from behind him, and then Evan was at his side. "You aren't seriously going? What if it's a trap?"

"Of course it's a trap," the Doctor replied. "What else could it be?"

Evan did not say anymore, but he didn't leave the Doctor's side either.

-

For so long, she had been watching the computer as the words ran unchanging across the screen. _Where is the Doctor... Where is the Doctor..._ It was almost enough to drive her mad, as if the machine was mocking her. Where _was_ the Doctor? She had no idea. Absolutely no idea, and now it looked like the Earth as everyone knew it was going to come to an end because she couldn't find the Doctor.

She checked the thick, black band on her wrist out of habit, but it still wasn't working. No matter how many times she tried fiddling with the inner workings and adjusting the wires, there was something crucial she was missing about it, so for the time being she was stuck here.

A subtle change on the screen had her lift her head, and her breath caught as she read the line. _Where are you, Doctor._

It was different now, as though the machine was talking to the Doctor rather than looking for him. But then – that meant the Doctor knew about the problem.

She watched with baited breath as one half of a conversation scrolled across the screen. Then –

_Follow the light... Follow the light... Follow the light..._

"Follow the light," she mouthed. It must be some sort of clue – something to bring the Doctor to whatever was behind the problem. If only she knew what it meant, so she could get there and find him.

"Think! Come on, use that brain of yours." She pushed back the chair with a screech of metal against tile floor and began to pace. _Follow the light... Follow the light._

Then she stopped, a thought hitting her like a brick wall. Maybe it wasn't a clue. Maybe it was completely literal...

She tore out of the shop and right out into the middle of the street. All around her, everything was dark – all the street lights and house lights had been shut off from the virus. But there, in the distance, shone a line of flickering lights. It looked as though the lights were moving – but no, one light after another was blinking on, and back a ways, turning off again. A moving trail of light.

"Follow the light!" she exclaimed, and with an excited shout she took off down the street.


	6. In Absence of a Plan

_**A/N: **Thanks so much for the response I've gotten on this so far! Just thought I'd mention that I recently posted a new poll on my profile for what fic I should work on next. I'd really appreciate the feedback._

_-_

_Chapter Six: In Absence of a Plan_

The street lights were flickering on just ahead of the Doctor, matching his pace almost exactly. It was impossible to tell where they were leading, other than the general direction of "just down the street". It could be a long walk or a short one – but then, Martha had said the problems originated in this area, so he had a hunch there wasn't far to go.

Evan was still with him, and although the Doctor was surprised, it was only mildly so. He had a thing for picking up tag-alongs, some of whom wound up as companions, and others who ... didn't. The Doctor wasn't sure yet which category he hoped for Evan to fall in. The boy had been pretty decent so far, but he hadn't really done anything worth doing.

"Doctor!" came an exclamation from the boy in question. "The lights – they're going out again behind us!"

"Hm?" The Doctor turned around to see that Evan was quite right – as each new light flickered on ahead, another shut off from behind. "Interesting..." His fingers reached for that handy pair of glasses he always kept in his pockets, but already the light overhead had shut off, the trail of lights fully prepared to leave him behind. "Ah, right. On we go, then," he told Evan, and ran to catch up with the lights.

"So... Doctor," Evan began nervously after they had caught up to the light trail and slowed to a normal walking pace once again. "When we get to wherever it is we're being taken, what do we do?"

"That," the Doctor replied, "is one excellent question, Evan Kirke. I have absolutely no idea."

Evan was apparently so unnerved by this admission that he fell silent, which suited the Doctor just fine. He needed to use this time to catalogue the clues he had been given to figure out what the sentient virus could be.

Clues:  
It took over anything electrical.  
It could speak through audio systems.  
It preferred the dark (or had it shut off the lights for some other reason?).  
It knew who he, the Doctor, was. (Had he met the virus before? Or had it met the Doctor's future self?)

"So, you haven't any plan, then?" Evan asked hesitantly.

The Doctor flashed him a large, toothy grin. "Nope. Makes it more exciting, doesn't it?"

"We're walking into a trap without any sort of plan?"

The Doctor began to revise his earlier thoughts of possibly inviting Evan along for a ride or two after the situation was fixed. "You've asked me that several times already. Yes – trap. No – plan. Got it yet?"

"But – shouldn't we have some sort of idea? Like – you distract the virus-thingy while I get rid of it?"

The Doctor halted to face Evan head on. "Excellent plan!"

Evan's eyes grew wide in his head, and it took several seconds before he could shake off his surprise. "You really think so?"

"Oh yeah. So how exactly are you going to disable the virus?"

Evan reached into his pocket and drew out an old piece of chalk, a rubber band, and a paper clip. His face dropped. "I-I'm not sure." Overhead, the light blinked and shut off.

"There we go, then," the Doctor stated, and resumed walking at a slightly faster pace than before in order to catch up with the lights. As Evan hurried up behind him, the Doctor felt a twinge of pity – the kid had tried, after all – and explained, "We don't know enough about it yet. Until we do, no use making up a plan."

"Sorry," Evan mumbled.

They were quiet for some time until the Doctor stirred at an inner thought and asked, "Evan, you don't know anyone named Jenny, do you?"

"Jenny? Don't think so. Why?"

"No reason." There was a pause, and then the Doctor added, "She's my daughter."

"Oh." Judging by the expression on Evan's face, he had completely forgotten the Doctor's earlier introduction as 'a parent'. "Which grade is she in?"

"She doesn't go to school," the Doctor answered quickly, before realizing that that may not be true. Maybe Jenny _had_ decided to go to school – but surely if she did, she'd attend a college or university. He frowned as he realized just how much he was missing of his daughter's life. _Jenny, where are you? Why can't I find you?_

At his side, Evan breathed in sharply, and the Doctor stopped as he noticed that the streetlights were no longer lighting a path ahead. Instead, he and Evan were standing in the glow of a neon WELCOME sign that hung on the inside of a glass door.

"Welcome," Evan read, and shivered. "That sounds ominous."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, and pushed open the door.

-

She was running hard, the rhythm of her shoes on the concrete echoing her double heartbeat. At the other end of the street shone the streetlights, and beneath them, two dark figures. She'd bet anything that one of them was the man she was searching for.

They had paused outside a shop just as the streetlights shut off all at once, and she stumbled in the sudden, disorienting dark. All that was left was a dim purple, neon glow, which disappeared from her vision as one of the people moved between it and her.

She guessed that the two figures were entering the shop and pushed herself harder, so much harder than before. "Doctor!" she tried to call, but there wasn't quite enough air in her lungs, and it came out as a feeble, wheezing cry.

A minute later, she stumbled to a halt beside the door. There was no sign of anyone, but she could guess they had entered the shop. She grabbed the handle and pushed, but the door was locked and would not budge.

"All right then," she huffed, and pulled from her hair a metal pin she had taken to wearing just for this purpose. It was difficult to see in the light of the welcome sign, but she was able to slide the pin inside. Then the light shut off, her hand slipped, and the pin came out.

She swore softly beneath her breath and tried to pick the lock from feel alone, but her fingers kept slipping. In frustration, she threw her shoulder against the door and shouted as loudly as possible, "Doctor! Doctor, are you there?"

She paused to listen for an answer, and it was then she heard the subtle brush of fabric sliding across stone. She whirled about, squinting to see what was causing the sound, but even her enhanced senses showed nothing. And then – a tickle of cloth against her bare arm, a cold, heavy hand over her mouth, and before she could react, a burst of pain on the side of her head.


	7. In the Dark

_**A/N: **Again, thank you to everyone who has so far reviewed, favorited, and/or alerted, as well as to everyone who has yet to do so. You have no idea how meaningful it is to me. Couple of points of interest: First, I still have that poll going on that I mentioned last chapter, and I _really _would appreciate votes. Second, for any Narnia fans out there, a little while ago I posted a DW/Narnia crossover called _To Be Left Behind_._ _Just so you know. _

_We now return to your scheduled broadcast._

* * *

_Chapter Seven: In the Dark_

_Welcome, Doctor._

The mechanical voice echoed around the dark room as though projected from multiple speakers simultaneously. Evan jumped, and then glanced at the Doctor to see if he had noticed the show of nerves. It didn't seem so, but then, it was hard to know for sure in the gloom of the room.

"I'm here now,' the Doctor announced, spinning slowly around on his heel for any sign of a speaker. Evan did the same, but the interior of the shop was full of suspicious shadows and it was impossible to tell if anyone was there.

_Welcome, Doctor. _

"What do you want?"

_Think, Doctor. You know what I want._

The darkness was stifling. Evan sucked in a deep breath, feeling as though his lungs were straining to fill – was there some sort of gas in here? Were they going to be killed from oxygen deprivation? Fear tinted his voice as he asked softly, "Doctor, what does it mean?"

The Doctor ignored his question and addressed the voice again, "Is it electrical power? Is that what you want? Leave this world alone. I can bring you somewhere else where you can make your home and live in peace. I promise you I only wish to help."

_I want... you, Doctor._

Evan shivered at the words and peered at the Doctor to gauge his reaction, but the shadows still obscured his face.

"What do you want me for?"

Slowly, so slowly that at first Evan almost did not notice, the Doctor slid a hand into one of his inside pockets and drew out a long tube of some sort. He held it out to Evan, who took hold of the cold plastic gingerly. It was more than one cylinder, he realized, but rather a bundle of thin plastic tubes, each no thicker than a straw. Evan fingered them curiously and wondered what he was supposed to do with them as the Doctor pulled out another bundle for himself.

_I need your blue box._

Blue box? Evan nearly snorted at the sheer absurdity of the statement, but the Doctor seemed to find this important, for he asked immediately, "Why? _Why_ do you need my blue box? Is there somewhere you need to go? I can take you there – but you have to leave this earth's power supply alone."

_I am going nowhere._

"Then _what do you want?_"

_You must bring my people to this planet._

Evan's jaw dropped. "Alien," he gasped. "The thing's an alien. Like – like those attacks at Christmas and Canary Warf and those metal cylinder exterminator things – Doctor, what can we do?"

In answer, the Doctor held up the plastic tubes in both hands and bent them swiftly in half. A flare of neon lights burst in his hands, illuminating the space around them.

"Glow sticks," the Doctor explained under his breath. "Go on, crack the lot of them."

Evan complied with a feeling of incredulity – what on earth was the Doctor carrying a stash of glow sticks around in his pocket for? – and the added light of his handful brightened the room further. All around them were coffee tables and chairs, and lined up along the wall was a row of identical computers.

"An internet cafe," Evan breathed, and the Doctor nodded.

"That's where the audio's been coming from. But the source – we need to find the source!"

The Doctor strode across the room and vaulted over the counter. Evan followed a little more cautiously, his glow sticks held high as though to fend off an attack.

_Stop where you are, Doctor._

"Or what? You'll take over these glow sticks? Can't – they're a chemical reaction, not your cup of tea at all. Now let's get a look at you, shall we?"

The Doctor flung open the door to the back room with a dramatic gesture and strode inside. Evan crept after him, pausing in the doorway as he saw the mass of wires that hung across the room, and the shadowy figure that sat in the center like a spider in a web.

-

The Doctor held the glow sticks over his head and trod carefully toward the creature that waited. It was hard not to twitch every time he saw a shadow move in the corner of his eye; the shadows of the multiple wires left dark stripes of strange, shifting patterns on the walls.

The room itself was a simple office; on the far wall stood a half-empty bookshelf. Pushed up against the side wall was a rather large office desk covered in a mess of papers, an assortment of pens, and two used coffee mugs. There was a forgotten water fountain on the other wall beneath a drape-covered window.

The Doctor focused on the figure before him, seated in a large office chair that slid back when he moved too close. The Doctor stopped then, inspecting the cloak that covered the creature.

"Let me see you," he demanded.

The creature hissed, but the Doctor stood firm, until a silver hand reached from the fabric and pulled the hood from its face. Beneath was a human – or what had once been a human, for now the eyes emitted a soft green light and wires were attached to several round sockets in the forehead.

"What are you?' Evan asked from behind him, the tremble in his voice betraying his fear.

The creature hissed again, a sound echoed as static from the speakers in the other room. _"I am human," _it proclaimed, and the words that came from its mouth were magnified by the mechanical voice from the speakers.

"But you can't be," the boy continued, "You're – you have wires hanging from your head. I'm pretty sure humans don't have that." The tremor in his voice had gotten worse, but the Doctor felt pleased that he had managed to speak at all.

"_I have had bio-mechanical augmentation." _

"Bio-mechanical augmentation?" the Doctor repeated incredulously. "Looks like a lot more than that to me. You've got a whole computer system wired into your head."

The creature glared balefully at the Doctor. _"I am of the Kemorites."_

"Aaah!" The Doctor's face lit up with understanding. "Kemorite – you're a Kemorite! But what are you doing here? Humans don't establish a colony on Kemor for another millennia."

"_I came through the hole in space and time."_

"The Cardiff rift? Really? That's extraordinary." The Doctor paused, trying to convey with his silence just how extraordinary it was. "And now you want me to take you home?"

"_Kemor is dying. You will bring my people to Earth to live here."_

The Doctor shook a finger at the half-human in front of him. "But that would be messing with timelines, which is a very big no."

"_You will do it, Doctor."_

"Oh?" He cocked an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"_I have your female."_

"My...?" The Doctor whirled on his heels at the sound of movement behind him, just in time to catch Evan as he was pushed forward from the doorway. Two Kemorites entered the room, dressed in black cloaks similar to that of the creature in the chair. One held a large blaster of some sort, which made the Doctor's two hearts sink. And the other... the Doctor's hearts fell even lower as his mouth grew dry. Hanging limp in the arms of the other was the unconscious form of a blond girl with dark lashes and pale skin.

Jenny.


	8. Desperation

_Chapter Eight: Desperation_

"Donna! Donna! Open up, will ye?"

Wilf pounded once more on the door for good measure before stepping back. He didn't have to wait long; only a minute later Donna had flung open the door, rolling her eyes at the sight of him and Silvia before ushering them inside.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing, going visiting in the middle of a citywide power outage? Daft, the two of you! Oi, Shaun, we've got company!"

"We just wanted to make sure you were all right," Wilf explained, adding quickly, "Easy for accidents to happen in the dark."

"I believe we're capable of looking after ourselves," Donna replied, but a smile was creeping across her face, and she pulled Wilf into an unexpected hug. "You know you don't need to come up with excuses to visit. What do I tell you? Always welcome."

She led them into the kitchen, chattering away a mile per minute. Wilf couldn't help but remember some of the conversations he'd had with her, back when her memory was whole and she still travelled with the Doctor. Everything had been so much more meaningful to her then, while now she talked so much more and said so much less.

"Shaun's just in the living room, trying to get the lights on. Might be fiddling with the telly – he watches more than enough of the thing – say, Mum, would you give me a hand…"

Wilf slipped from the kitchen and down the hall, keeping a hand against the wall lest he trip over some small object hidden in the shadows. As he entered the living room he spotted Shaun examining a torch in his hands.

"Funny," he said as Wilf came near, "It was working fine a minute ago, but then it went out, same as the lights had. Wish I knew what caused it."

Wilf watched as Shaun hit the torch once more for lack of any other ideas. "Shaun," he began hesitantly, and then paused because he didn't know how to say what was on his mind.

"Yeah?"

_Just ask. _"None of the electrical things you have here have been acting strange, have they?" It wasn't at all what he had meant to say.

"You mean other than going out all at once?"

"I mean… voices and text, asking for the Doctor."

Shaun had already begun shaking his head no, but as Wilf finished he stopped and regarded the old man curiously. "Come to think of it, my alarm clock was going rather crazy just as the power went out." He absently left the room, and a moment later returned with a small white, digital clock that was squawking, _Follow the light. Follow the light._

"It was asking for a doctor earlier," Shaun commented, and shook the device as though trying to make it stop.

Wilf gripped Shaun's arm tightly. "You can't let Donna hear this. It has to do with her… her amnesia."

His granddaughter's husband just frowned. "But surely if she recognizes it-?"

Wilf forced himself to stay calm. "She never remembers. It just makes her head hurt and she gets upset." It wasn't a lie, not exactly; just a small part of the truth.

Shaun nodded slowly in understanding. "Alright. Besides, she'd probably just accuse me of seeing alien conspiracies everywhere."

_Welcome, Doctor._

Both Wilf and Shaun jumped at the sudden change of words. Shaun looked down at the clock in his hands, and then back at Wilf and asked shakily, "Did it just-?"

_Welcome, Doctor._

"It was doing this sort of thing at our house on the telly," Wilf explained, careful not to take his eyes off the offending device. "Asking for the Doctor."

_Think, Doctor. You know what I want._

"It's – it's like half a conversation," Shaun murmured in awe.

"Donna can't hear this," Wilf muttered.

_I want… you, Doctor._

"This is just creepy," Shaun breathed, and then lifted his head and unconsciously echoed Wilf's words, "Donna can't hear this."

_I need you and your blue box._

From the kitchen came a loud clatter and Donna's voice, getting louder with proximity, "Shaun, you mind coming to help over here?"

"Donna can't hear this," Wilf repeated, more harshly this time, and he grabbed the clock – _I am going nowhere – _and pushed Shaun towards the door. The man seemed just a little bewildered, probably because of Wilf's behaviour, but he went willingly enough.

_You must bring my people to this planet._

A chill ran down Wilf's back but he ignored it and focused on the situation at hand. Where on earth could he hide the clock to muffle the sound? He checked the hall and saw that Shaun had convinced Donna to return to the kitchen. Pressing the speaker against his chest in an effort to block any further sounds,Wilf hurried down the hall and out the back door. The yard was small and rather unkempt; Wilf made his way past the straggly bushes to the far corner and – _Stop where you are, Doctor_ – dropped the clock speakers down into the bushes.

-

It was the pain that woke her – that and a worried voice calling for her to open her eyes. It was hard to think of the last time she had felt so bad. An involuntary groan escaped her, and she lifted a hand to prod the top of her head. _Ouch_ – she winced as her fingers ran over a lump on the side of her head and encountered half-dried blood.

"Jenny! Thank Rassilon." The voice seemed louder now – closer, or else she was more aware. The person seemed to know her name, but she couldn't remember ever having heard this voice before.

She cracked her eyes open a slit, wary of a sudden exposure to light, but everything was dark. _Dark… right. _The power outage. She'd been following the lights, following the possible-Doctor. And then – something had attacked her.

Her eyes flew open the rest of the way, and she sat up abruptly, ignoring the eruption of pain she felt at this. Thank the Goddess for her enhanced vision; she could make out the tight, enclosed space around her and two other… humans, it looked like. Male humans. She would have stood to defend herself, but her head still hurt and she did not want to betray this by possibly wavering.

One of the men had jumped back at her sudden movement, but the other was regarding her calmly. Neither seemed to be a danger to her – rather, it appeared they were all prisoners together. Jenny allowed her gaze to run over the shelves and examine the single door on the far wall.

"Jenny." She allowed herself to look back to the man who had spoken, the one kneeling beside her. "How's your head?"

"I'm fine," she answered automatically and untruthfully, and then, "Who are you?"

The man was silent, leaving his companion to answer. "Evan Kirke. This is the Doctor."

"No. I know the Doctor. This isn't him."

"That's what he told me," Evan responded defensively.

Jenny lifted her chin in protest. "He cannot be. I know the Doctor."

"And how would you know him?"

She was fully prepared to argue her point, but the man in question spoke first. "She's my daughter."

The stunned silence was broken by Jenny's condescending snort. "I've never seen you before in my life, and I think I would know my own father. Is this some sort of trick?"

"You can see?" the man asked in surprise, and then shook his head. "Never mind, that's unimportant right now. It's no trick, I promise. Unless you count it as a trick to cheat death."

She frowned angrily. "I don't need any riddles."

The man sighed heavily. "Time Lords have a way of cheating death. We change our face, body, hair, everything. It's like I'm a whole new man, only I'm still the same inside – my personality will change, but I'm still made up of all the same memories and experiences. I'm the same on the inside."

_On the inside._ A thought struck Jenny, and she reached out to place both hands on his chest. The man flinched, and she wondered if he didn't want her to touch him until she remembered not everyone had the ability to see in the dark. A soft thudding met both her palms, and Jenny breathed out a sigh of astonishment. "Two hearts."

"Two hearts?" Evan echoed.

In all the time since her birth, she had only ever met one man who had two hearts like her. She closed her eyes and remembered that day – her very first day – when Donna had listened to her double heartbeat and proved to the Doctor that Jenny was his daughter. How many times since then had she dreamed of finding her father, only now to be told that she would never see his face again?

"Two hearts," the man confirmed softly.

"Wait," Evan interrupted, his voice rising in panic. "Do you mean to say you're alien, too?" He moved back in alarm until his back was pressed against the shelves.

Jenny and the… other man (she couldn't yet accept his claim) both raised their heads. She did not know how to respond, but the man replied with a simple, "Yes," and turned back to her. "How are you still alive – still you? I saw you die. You should either be dead or regenerated."

"Regenerated. That's… what you did?" But of course he hadn't done it at all; it was just a lie he had created to justify stealing her father's name. _But he has two hearts,_ whispered a tiny voice inside her head.

"Yes." They were silent for a time, and then the man murmured, "You are like me, but the machine would not know Time Lords – it wouldn't understand my DNA. Maybe the regeneration gene was altered slightly, and it was dormant when you died. Then when it was triggered your genes did not alter completely, they just… refreshed, so to speak. But what triggered it?" He paused, and Jenny was too busy contemplating his words to say anything. Then he snapped his fingers, causing Evan to jump, and exclaimed, "The Terraform! That would do it!" He reached a hesitant hand out and searched the air until it fell on her face. "Jenny… it really is me."

"And how do you expect me to believe that? I'm no idiot – you could be any humanoid with two hearts masquerading as my father."

"And if I was," he responded, "Would I know that you battled the Hath only minutes after your birth, referred to Martha as 'collateral damage', and told me I was lucky that one of my friends had survived? Would I know that you accused me of being a soldier because of my planning, that I had used a wind-up mouse to distract a guard, and that you were able to leap through the security lasers in a highly improbable fashion? Would I know about the Source, and that you stepped in front of a bullet to save my stupid old life, and I had promised you a universe of adventures as you lay dying in my arms? Would I know-?"

Both of Jenny's hearts had momentarily stopped. What else the Doctor knew was cut off as he was thrown back by the force of her embrace and her soft, frenzied whisper of, "Father, oh Father!"


	9. Jenny

_**A/N: **Thanks again for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts! Also, I've mentioned this before, but I've still got a poll going on my profile for what fic people would be interested in next. _

* * *

_Chapter Nine: Jenny_

_Outside, Jenny could hear the throbbing pulse of drums and faint strains of music as the Litkor Day procession wove through the streets. People were cheering – a lot of people, and if she had learned anything in the three years she'd been alive, more people were gathering as each moment passed. _

_She could certainly see why a terrorist would be drawn to this event, for the more people injured or killed in a bombing, the larger the political statement. It was terrible to think of, not to mention horribly inconvenient for her, who had done so much but had yet to disable a bomb. _No time like the present,_ she thought philosophically, and hunched down beside the ticking black box._

_It took a few precious seconds to pry off the side panel, exposing a mess of wires. They were tangled, and another moment was wasted as she stared at the mess in bewilderment. Wasn't there some rule about colour-coding the wires? How else was she supposed to know which one to cut?_

No need for panic._ There had to be some way of stopping the explosion. All she had to do was figure it out in less than two minutes or else she and everyone else would be blown to bits... She felt her heartbeats quicken and forced herself to pause and take a deep breath. _Think, Jenny. _If she could isolate which wire connected where..._

_A hand fell on her shoulder and Jenny stifled a yelp, spinning around on her haunches to block an attack. Only when her provoker was pinned against the far wall did she see his bewildered expression. Stammering an apology, Jenny jumped back, wiping her palms self-consciously against her pants._

"_Soldier's reflexes?" the man asked with a smirk, and she nodded breathlessly. "I might make a point of taking offense," he continued, "but I suspect that can wait until after we solve your problem."_

_Absolutely mortified that she'd managed to forget the bomb for even a moment, Jenny spun around again, and then remembered she had no idea how to disable it._

_As though he could sense her thoughts, the man pulled a spray can from his pocket and held it out to her. "Freeze spray," he explained. "Particles will cause a disruption of time, effectively stopping it for a good five to ten minutes."_

_What sort of man kept time disrupting particles in a spray can in his pocket? Jenny opened her mouth to ask, thought better of it (at least for the time being), and took the can from him._

"_Do I just spray it anywhere?" she asked, gingerly pointing the nozzle at the ticking bomb._

_He reached out cautiously – worried she might attack him again, she expected – and placed a hand over her own, guiding the can down until it was only a hand's length away from the mess of wires that hung exposed from the black box. He nodded encouragingly and she pressed down on the nozzle, emitting a hiss and a faint white cloud that disappeared almost immediately. A loud drumbeat from the street outside broke the silence, and Jenny lifted her head. "Did I do it all right?"_

"_You were absolutely amazing," he replied, and held out a hand. _

_Jenny returned the spray can, still feeling incredibly out of her depth._

"_I did it right then?"_

"_Perfectly," he replied, "Hear that? Ticking's stopped."_

_She hadn't even noticed until now. "You said the particles wear off."_

_He grinned and bent down beside her. "That," he stated, shaking a pair of wire cutters that had appeared in his hands, "is why I have these." He reached into the tangled wires, picked one seemingly at random, and snipped it in half._

_Jenny winced, half-expecting an explosion to tear her apart, but nothing happened. "How did you know which one to cut?"_

"_Practice," the man replied cryptically, and slipped the cutters into another pocket. "So, care for a drink?"_

"He was a Time Agent," Jenny explained, acutely aware of the undivided attention of her listeners. "His name was Elric Ronalyn. We went for drinks and talked for a bit. Apparently he'd heard of you, Doctor-"

"-Dad," he interjected, not looking particularly pleased at the thought of her having drinks with a man.

"-and that's when I learned you could travel in time. I'd been having a hard enough time trying to find you in one time, let alone the whole of space _and_ time." She paused. The Doctor was still glowering unpleasantly, and she added, "I'm not a child. I can go out with someone if I want."

"How long has it been since I saw you last?"

She sighed heavily. "Just over three years. But I have the full maturity of an adult!"

"You're three years old!"

From the corner of the room, Evan choked in disbelief. "You're only three? And the Doctor can travel in time?"

"The TAR – er, my ship travels in time and space," the Doctor explained somewhat sheepishly. "But how you, Miss, managed to travel from the sixty-first century to here..."

"Like I said," Jenny continued, "Elric was a Time Agent." She paused and frowned, unhappy with her tenses. "Is a Time Agent? Will be a Time Agent? In any case, he could – can travel through time."

"_I was watching you with the bomb," Elric stated casually as he leaned over his beer. "You were doing a good job." _

_Jenny stiffened at the thought of someone watching her unnoticed, but brushed the feeling away. "And you didn't think to help sooner?"_

_He wasn't at all fazed by her bristled question. "Like I said, you were doing a good job. Only stepped in when I saw you didn't actually know how to disable the thing."_

_She was offended, and muttered, "Not everyone carries around time-disruption particles in their pockets."_

"_Exactly." Elric tipped back his head and finished what was left of his beer. As he set the empty glass on the counter, his eyes sharpened and he gave Jenny the once-over. "So, you aren't a Time Agent then?"_

"_No." She'd never even heard of Time Agents before Elric. "I'm nothing – just a sort of adventurer, I suppose."_

_He was looking at her strangely, as though weighing several possibilities. Jenny respected his silence and sipped her drink patiently, studying the other occupants of the bar – mostly humanoids, and a pair of green-tentacled creatures – until Elric placed both palms on the table top and looked into her eyes. "What do you say you come back to the fifty-first with me and join the Agency? You'll love it."_

_It took a moment for Jenny to find her voice, and then she didn't know what to say. "Really?" she breathed. "Is there... lots of running?"_

"_You bet." He was grinning at her now, a hopeful, silly grin that made her stomach twist in a way she'd never felt before._

"_Is it allowed? I mean, I'd be going back an entire century."_

_His grin was widening, and he winked lazily. "I won't tell if you don't."_

_Her hearts were beating faster now, and Jenny yearned to say yes. A life of adventure and travel through time and space-! But of course there was still the matter of finding her father, who could be anywhere and anywhen. "If I could take a look, see if I like it?"_

_The grin became a full-fledged smile, and Elric reached across the table to take hold of her arm. His other hand was busy doing something to the black band around his wrist. "Ready?" Elric asked, his finger hovering over the keyboard. "Set? Off we go!"_

_There was a twisting sensation and Jenny felt as though she was falling and drowning, being torn to pieces and put back together a hundred times over. Darkness surrounded her, and she was blinded by the white brightness of it. Thousands of melodies ripped through her mind in an eternal, longing silence. She wanted to laugh; she wanted to cry. She wanted to shout in triumph and wither with despair. In any minute, or second, or century, she was going to explode or shrivel up or dissolve into dust to blow through the Time Vortex forevermore..._

_The return to reality was staggering, and Jenny clung to Elric's sleeve as she found her balance. "Welcome," Elric said grandly, "To the Time Agency, fifty-first century." _

"It was absolutely incredible at the Agency," Jenny recalled softly, and if the Doctor could see at all in the dark, he might have noticed her eyes shining with the brilliance of her memory. "It felt as though all the different times were calling to me. I wanted nothing more than to fly through time and space and experience everything. But the actual work of the Time Agents – it was too serious for me. I could never last long tied to an Agency that controlled my every movement. So I left."

"You left?" the Doctor repeated. "Just like that?"

It seemed as though Jenny had hoped to avoid this conversation, for her voice quickened, and she answered a little too casually, "I found a Time Agent's wristband and used that to come here."

He glowered in the dark, all the different protests against such "borrowing" running through his mind. At the same time, he knew that had he been in the same situation, he would undoubtedly have done the same. "You found it. But how did you know to come here?"

The Doctor could hear the relief in her voice at the avoided lecture. "I jumped around a bit first. Met some really incredible people – like the Face of Boe. He was the one to recommend twenty-first century earth, and it looks like he was right."

"The Face of Boe," the Doctor repeated with a smirk. "And so you came here and got interested in the blackouts?"

"I was trying to leave, actually," Jenny admitted, "But the power outage caused the vortex manipulator to malfunction."

"Of course," the Doctor nodded. A sudden intriguing thought came to him, and he mulled it over silently. Was the vortex manipulator the reason the TARDIS had had difficulties locating Jenny? He knew that vortex manipulators could cause irregularities, so it_ was _quite possible the TARDIS would not be able to pick up her location, although it could, to some extent, pick up her signature, bringing him first to Donna and then here.

The Doctor opened his mouth to share and realized that this really wasn't the best time. "Interesting," he settled on saying, although the word really did not cover the situation by half.

"And you?" Jenny queried. "How did you get here?"

"TARDIS," the Doctor explained shortly, and then remembered neither she nor Evan – _blimey, _he'd nearly forgotten about Evan – knew what he was talking about. "Ah, my ship brought me here. I was looking for you. Now it turns out the Kemorite leader wants me to bring the rest of his half-human, half-computer people to Earth because Kemor is dying, and when I refused, he locked us into the cupboard to reflect on our fate should I never agree. He should be back for me in – well, any minute now, I suppose – to hear my final answer. Wish I knew how he'd heard of me."

"But Doctor, what are the Kemorites?" Evan piped up from somewhere behind him.

"Quite simply, colonists. They began experimenting with bio-mechanization to the extent that they all became, quite literally, cyber-brains. Similar to cybermen, actually. " Only of course, Jenny did not know what a cyberman was, and the Doctor had no wish to go into that discussion at present.

"I've met them," Jenny said unexpectedly. "During my travels. Just before coming to this place and time I stopped at Kemor when I was searching for you. I couldn't stay long, though, for the entire colony was dying from lack of power." She stopped and sucked in a sharp breath. "Doctor – Dad, do you think that's where the Kemorite heard of you? From when I was there?"

The Doctor had stiffened at her words. "He fell through a hole in space and time. I thought the Kemorite meant the Cardiff rift, but he didn't. It was a temporary hole. It was you who brought them here, Jenny."

He could tell she was startled by his accusation. "But I didn't! I promise I didn't!"

"But it was the last place you went before coming to this planet and time, wasn't it? The vortex manipulator must have already begun malfunctioning from the power problems on Kemor. When it took you away, it created a temporary hole in time and space and carried three of the Kemorites through as well."

She had gone completely still, as had Evan. The silence in the closet was close to overwhelming. "But what do we do?" Jenny asked softly.

Now would be a very, very good time for a plan. The Doctor spared a moment's regret for not having the time to create one, and announced with more energy than he felt, "We make it up as we go along."


	10. You Are Summoned

_**A/N: **So apparently the site is being stupid and not allowing line-breaks anymore. I've found a way around that here, although it might have messed up previous chapters. Of course, I've also found out that those little arrow-things that are on top of the "," and "." keys aren't showing up either, which completely ruins the entire first section. I put in dashes instead, but it's just not the same. Sigh._

* * *

_Chapter Ten: You are Summoned_

- Date: Unknown; 652 Standard Hours since Relocation -

- World Systems Control: 89% -

- System Power: 63%  
Continue Charging -

- Incoming Transmission from Beta JX029 -

- Open Transmission Link -

- Beta JX029:  
Time since prisoner lockup: 58 Standard Minutes  
Likelihood of Doctor's consent to Plan C81: 86%  
Summon Doctor?

Alpha YM572:  
Yes. -

- End Transmission -

- x -

The door burst open without warning, narrowly missing Evan's side as he yelped in shock. Of course the Doctor and Jenny made no sound at all; he expected they must have some sort of alien super-hearing, and were able to hear the Kemor-whatsits from a mile away. (And of course they had given him no warning. Typical.)

A bright blue beam flooded the closet, running across the shelves until it moved down to where the three of them were seated. _"Doctor,"_ came a voice, one that was mildly mechanical but (thankfully) not echoed by all the speakers and stuff from the other room. _"Doctor, you are summoned." _

"Summoned, am I?" The Doctor rose to his feet casually, and if Evan had been able to see anything in the blinding glare, he would not have been surprised had the Doctor been grinning. "Sounds official. I don't know if I can make it – I'm awfully busy here in this closet. Don't suppose we could schedule this in tomorrow, say eight-thirty?"

"_You are summoned, Doctor," _the Kemor-thingy repeated.

"Oh, very well. Up you get, Evan. You too, Jenny." A hand took hold of Evan's and helped him to his feet. As he stood up, it felt almost as though the beam had intensified, and Evan lifted an arm to shield his eyes.

"_You are summoned, Doctor. The others will stay here."_

"Oh, they will, will they?" the Doctor muttered, and added louder, "I'm not going anywhere without them. Understood?"

There was a pause as the Kemor-mabob processed the Doctor's words, and then, _"Very well. You are summoned -"_

"Yes, yes, I know that already," the Doctor interrupted. "Now let's move on – I'm on a tight schedule, you know."

- x -

An hour had passed since Wilf had hidden the clock out in the garden, and he was beginning to think that the coast was clear. They had enjoyed a lovely evening together, which, while dark and strangely silent without the hum of electricity in the background, was pleasant enough.

"Do you think it might be safe to leave?" Silvia whispered to Wilf during a moment when Donna was occupied with Melanie.

Wilf couldn't think of any reason they needed to stay longer, and yet he felt wary over the idea of leaving Donna even for a second while the power outage occurred. "Just... another half-hour," he responded feebly.

Silvia frowned but nodded shortly, and Wilf knew from her lack of an argument that she really must be worried for Donna.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Donna asked from across the room, and then added crossly, "Except of course I can't make any because there isn't a way to heat the water." She stood up grumpily and added as an afterthought, "Care for some biscuits?"

Without even waiting for an answer, she disappeared into the kitchen. Melanie trotted over to her father.

Donna reappeared in the doorway, her eyes wide with confusion. "Shaun," she said, "there's something wrong with the microwave."

"The microwave?"

Wilf exchanged a concerned look with Shaun and stood up quickly to follow.

The microwave was beeping loudly, and green text was scrolling across the screen. Wilf groaned, almost afraid to look. Surely it would be asking for the Doctor, and Donna's mind would explode...

He chanced a look.

_You have been summoned... You have been summoned... You have been summoned..._

"I don't understand it at all!" Donna was complaining. "It's just gone mad!"

_You have been summoned... You have been summoned..._

Who had been summoned? The Doctor, most like, although-

_You have been summoned._

It was almost as though the machine were talking to him.

_You._

Talking to him...

_Have Been._

Maybe, just maybe, the Doctor needed him again.

_Summoned._

For one glorious instant, Wilf remembered his adventure with the Doctor, and the longing deep inside that it would never end. It had ended, though; it was always meant to have ended, as his stupid fingers had tapped that stupid rhythm on the glass. He hadn't realized what it meant for the Doctor. Afterwards, Wilf had been too ashamed to ask if he might travel just once more in the Doctor's magical blue box, but now...

_You have been summoned._

_..._now was a second chance! A chance to try again, have another adventure-

"What d'you say, Wilf? A walk will do Donna good, aye?"

Shaun's voice cut into Wilf's mind and scattered his thoughts. Wilf realized he was standing at the door, his hand already on the handle, ready to leave and find the Doctor and report for duty. Only now did he remember that he had little chance of finding the Doctor, out there in the big, wide world. And of course, the microwave's display was no longer repeating the message, but had moved on to another: _What is your answer... What is your answer..._

"I guess a walk is a good idea," Donna sighed, and bustled from the room to find some shoes.

_What is your answer._

_My answer,_ thought Wilf sadly, _is that I stay here._ Because he had been given a task by the Doctor, to look after Donna and keep her safe, and he could not abandon her now.


	11. Short Circuit

_**A/N: **Again, thank you all so much for the reviews and alerts and favs. I've still got that poll going on my profile - please vote! _

* * *

_Chapter Eleven: Short Circuit_

It was a short walk from their makeshift prison to the back office, but Evan took the opportunity to sidle up beside the Doctor. "I was just wondering," he whispered, casting a nervous glance behind him at their Kemor-whatsit guard, "If they were using Jenny to convince you to do as they wanted, shouldn't they have locked her up somewhere else? You know, so we would be wondering if she was alright and everything?"

"The Kemorites may have computer brains, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are smart in the matters of coercion." The Doctor smiled and winked, evidently quite at ease. "Don't tell them I said that – they don't seem like the type of chaps to enjoy hearing the truth."

"Right." Evan looked back again; Jenny was directly behind him and the Doctor, and she smiled quite brightly when she noticed him looking. Evan blushed and turned away, wondering how she had managed to recover so quickly. _Must be an alien thing,_ he thought grumpily. Why, oh why had he followed the Doctor from the school?

The closed door to the office loomed before them in the blue spotlight from their guard. Another Kemor-thingy was waiting there, and opened the door without a sound. Evan swallowed nervously.

"_You have been summoned," _a familiar voice announced from inside the office, echoed by the computer speakers behind them. _"You have been summoned."_

"Yes, yes, I know, old chap," the Doctor replied, stepping quickly through the doorway. Evan followed close behind, aware of Jenny at his elbow. The room was lit by the neon colours of the glow sticks, still laying haphazard on the floor from when he and the Doctor had dropped them in the struggle preceding their short imprisonment in the closet.

"_You have been summoned."_

The Doctor turned and rolled his eyes dramatically at Evan. "This fellow really does need to work on expanding his vocabulary. Come to think of it, quite a few of the robotic species have that problem. Do you recall the Daleks and Cybermen? "Exterminate" and "Delete" all the time. You'd think they didn't have access to a thesaurus."

Evan nodded non-commitally, wishing the Doctor hadn't called attention to him. Surely the Kemor-things were staring at him now. Evan felt as though he couldn't move.

"_You have been summoned," _the Kemor-thing repeated.

Maybe it wasn't looking at him after all, then.

"I have been summoned," the Doctor mimicked quite pompously. "Now what do you want?"

"_What is your answer."_

"My answer? Now that is a good question." The Doctor turned to look at Evan again and tilted his head thoughtfully to the side. Evan shuffled his feet uncomfortably and felt incredibly conspicuous. "You see, there are plenty of factors I needed to take into account. For instance, just what do I gain from bringing your people here? And what do I lose? There was this one time when…"

"_What is your answer."_

"No need for that," the Doctor responded testily. "I'm giving you my answer. You're just as bad as the Chancellor of Vorpeii – I'd say one thing and he'd swear I had said the opposite. Incredibly difficult to have any sort of proper conversation – in the end I had to resort to saying the opposite of whatever I meant. Still confusing, but at least I got the point across."

Evan was only half-listening to the Doctor's chatter. Part of him was wondering how any one person could have so much to say; the other part of his mind was worrying over how long the Doctor could possibly last.

- x -

Jenny bounced uneasily from one foot to another. There were two Kemorites behind her, and the leader one in the center of the room on the rolling chair. Oh, how she wished to do this the easy way! Really, it wasn't that difficult to decapacitate three robot-human things. Jenny ran over the necessary moves in her mind as though it were a mental exercise of the sort she generally did before sleeping. (Someone had told her it was the surest way to success, although, come to think of it, she'd heard the same argument towards a shot of Scarlet Verr Rum first thing in the morning each day).

It really was a difficult task for her self-control to stand still and listen to the Doctor's rambling voice and watch Evan shift uneasily. Really, though – what was wrong with some action?

"We aren't here to hurt them," the Doctor had chided her when she brought it up, and she had snorted in annoyance.

"We're only here because they lured us. Besides, we want to get rid of them, don't we?"

And his answer: "I have to give them a chance, first."

It irked her, although Jenny wasn't sure why. This whole business of following her father's instruction was very strange, and Jenny wasn't sure yet how she liked it.

The Doctor was busy listing off all the reasons the Kemorite's plan to come to Earth was sure to fail. She had to hide a smile; it sounded as though most of the reasons were being pulled from the top of his head. _Apparently,_ the Doctor's amazing ship with the bigger-inside-than-outside could only hold a maximum of four passengers and one dog, which meant the transportation of an entire colony could take far too long. Also, too many trips to the same place in one relative time zone _apparently_ caused holes in universes and exploding stars. And then there was the matter off…

Jenny caught Evan's eye and smirked good-naturedly. His eyes widened in shock before he smiled hesitantly in return. Was he always this timid?

"You do know" the Doctor was saying for the fifth (or sixth, or seventh) time, "that there is little chance of success with this plan of yours. Say… 0.72% chance. Maybe less. Certainly no more. What say you I just take you chaps home to be with your families, and see if I can come up with some sort of solution for your colony? There must be some sort of way to fix things."

"_We stay here. You will bring our people."_

The Doctor heaved a dramatic sigh. "If you say so. But another warning – this planet is covered in water. And you should know that water is incredibly bad for circuit systems."

"_It does not matter." _

The Doctor's voice hardened as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I believe you will find it does matter very much."

Before the Kemorite could respond, a jet of water shot from the corner of the room, spraying everyone – including the Kemorite guards and the web of wires. Over the hiss of sparking wires, Jenny heard a movement behind her, and ducked just as a heavily-mechanized arm swung where her head had been a moment before. She kicked out hard behind her and heard the crash of her attacker falling against the far wall. Jenny straightened smugly, and immediately ducked again as the other Kemorite came at her. A moment later, it too was on the floor of the office.

Finally, a chance to do it her way.

- x -

The Doctor ignored the sounds of a struggle behind him, willing himself to trust that Jenny knew what she was doing. _Of course she does_ – only it was so hard to think of her as a soldier and not his long-lost daughter.

His front was completely soaked with water, and was only getting wetter. He squinted through the cloud of steam and spraying water to the figure standing anxiously beside the water fountain.

"Excellent job, Evan Kirke!" he called, and nodded with approval. "It might be a good idea to make your way over here again – these circuits look as though they might do anything. Watch you don't touch the wires."

He waited as Evan bent over the water fountain – probably checking to see if the elastic band was still in place – and until Evan began making his way under the wires before turning around. Jenny was standing over the two downed Kemorite guards, wearing a familiar grin he had last seen on his own face in a previous incarnation. "I told you I could do it," she reminded him smugly.

Evan appeared at the Doctor's side, breathless more from the adrenaline than any real exertion. "Are they… dead?" he asked, stepping close to one Kemorite's side and leaning over for a better look.

Words of warning reached the Doctor's tongue too late as the Kemorite's mechanical hand clamped around Evan's ankle. The boy yelped and tried to jump back, succeeding only in losing his balance and falling backwards. The Doctor leaped forward in alarm, but Jenny was already there, delivering a sharp blow to the wrist that caused the fingers to slacken before twisting it from the arm and hurling it across the room.

"Sorry," Evan mumbled, and rose shakily to his feet.

The Doctor barely heard him, his eyes taking in with horror the wires that had been ripped apart by the flying hand. Red sparks were dancing lazily at the loose ends, dropping from the wires to the office desk covered in papers…

"Run!" the Doctor bellowed, and he grabbed Evan's arm with one hand and Jenny's in the other to pull them through the door. The seconds seemed to slow as his double-heartbeat quickened and a familiar and most unwanted hiss reached at him from behind.

Somehow they managed to navigate the tables and chairs of the front room without tripping.

"The door's locked!" Evan cried in panic, but Jenny had found the deadbolt and was already drawing it back.

_Too late, too late,_ pounded the rhythm of the Doctor's hearts, but for a moment it seemed as though they would make it. Evan was already pushing the door open eagerly, the first breath of cold air reaching the Doctor's face.

And then the back room exploded in a blast of hot air and fire, knocking him forward off his feet and against the glass door.


	12. Shards

_**A/N: **Nothing much to say here... thanks again for reviews, favs, alerts and such. My poll is still up... thanks to everyone who's voted in that so far. _

_This is the second last chapter, so there will be one more sort of epilogue-thingy before we're done. _

* * *

_Chapter Twelve: Shards_

It was strange to be walking down the road on an evening as dark as this with the streetlights off and the stars evident in the sky. Donna's head was tilted back as she surveyed the constellations.

"Remember when I used to join you at your telescope?" she asked.

"Aye," Wilf replied, and it was almost as though he were sitting there again, listening as Donna described the man she was looking for. Had he known then what would happen – that Donna would have the best time of her life before forgetting it all – would he have let it happen? The question barely deserved thinking – of course he would have let her go. And besides, even if he did not want Donna to go, could he have stopped her? Probably not; his granddaughter was a force of nature no one could ignore.

Wilf chuckled softly to himself and Donna turned her head slightly in question, but he didn't explain. Let them enjoy the night together; it had been so long since they last had time to appreciate each other's company, and Wilf had missed it.

"I do wish," Donna sighed, "that I could remember those nights better. I recall wishing so hard for something, but I don't remember what. You – you don't remember, do you?"

Oh, how he remembered! But the Doctor's warning was stronger in his mind. "Sorry, darling," he replied, and slipped his hand into hers.

Yes, it was strange, out in the open street with the stars twinkling overhead and the hum of electricity absent from the air. But it was a good strange, and Wilf wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

They reached the corner of the street and were just beginning to contemplate turning back when the electricity returned to the street in a flood of light and sound. Wilf blinked in the sudden brightness and Donna's hand gripped his own tightly as the light grew more intense, and then -

A series of loud pops echoed all around them, followed by the loud tinkle of falling shards of glass.

"The light bulbs all exploded," Donna gasped.

Wilf bent down and fingered the hot glass thoughtfully. "Did the power come back so fast it overwhelmed the bulbs?" He wasn't sure if that was technically possible, but it was the only reason he could think of.

"Well, I like that," Donna muttered. "This city really needs to fix its power systems."

"Aye," Wilf agreed, and looked absently into the distance.

- x -

Shards of broken glass rained down to the sidewalk as Jenny sat up, mentally running through an inventory of body parts. _Hands? Check. Fingers? Check. Legs? Feet? Toes? Check, check, and check. Face? All there._ That taken care of, she picked off some of the glass clinging to her shirt and checked around her.

The Doctor was to her right, brushing off his suit nonchalantly in the light of the burning building behind him. His face was hidden as he bent over to adjust his pant legs, but he did not appear to be hurt. As for Evan, he was flat on his back, staring up at the flames with something akin to shock on his face. Jenny moved closer and noted a deep gash on his cheek. _Should be gone in a few hours,_ she diagnosed, before recalling that humans took much longer to heal than she did.

"All right, you two?"

The Doctor had finished cleaning himself off, and was now giving her the once-over (or twice-over, or thrice-over, since he didn't seem to be satisfied the first time). "I'm fine," Jenny assured him quickly, and stood up to prove it.

She could tell he wanted to give her a complete medical just to be sure, and to avoid this quickly added, "I think Evan's hurt."

Immediately, the Doctor dropped into a crouch at Evan's side to inspect the wound. "Not too serious," he diagnosed. "Should heal up fine in a few days, although it might leave a bit of a scar."

Evan winced with distaste at the news, but made no vocal complaints. Instead, he sat up, still watching the flaming remains of the Internet Cafe.

"Doctor, those Kemor-whatevers – they were already dead before the explosion, right?"

The Doctor's face was solemn. "No."

Jenny looked away quickly, feeling the unspoken blame. If she hadn't thrown the hand...

"If I hadn't stepped close to the Kemor-thing," Evan muttered.

The Doctor stopped him with a stern look. "Life is too short for "what-ifs" and "if-onlys". At least," he amended, "for you. I have the opposite problem. For me, life is too long for what-ifs. So if I get in that sort of mood I just tell the TARDIS to pop me somewhere with plenty of adventure and-"

"Doctor," Evan interrupted, "What _is_ the TARDIS?"

The Doctor stopped in shock. "Have I not explained yet? Then you're in for a real treat!"

- x -

_The paint is peeling,_ was the result of Jenny's first assessment of the blue box. It was hard to tell in the night, but she thought it must be a very pleasant sort of blue colour. She ran a hand over the wooden siding and felt a strange sense of familiarity.

"Police Public Call Box," Evan read aloud from behind her. Then, "It doesn't look very big."

"Look inside," the Doctor offered, and stepped forward to insert the key in the lock.

With a _snick_, the lock turned; with a creak, the door opened. The Doctor strode inside, Jenny hot on his heels, while Evan followed a little more cautiously.

"It's – she's beautiful," Jenny sighed, running a hand along the wall. The sense of the familiar was stronger now. It felt as though she belonged.

"But that's impossible," Evan sputtered. "It's only a wooden box. There isn't enough room-"

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," the Doctor recited proudly. "TARDIS. She can go anywhere and anywhen. So – where and when do you want to go?"

Jenny had so many places she wanted to see, but instead she turned her head and looked inquiringly at Evan. He appeared rather nonplussed, his forehead knitting together unhappily.

"I don't think I can," he mumbled. "I mean – those were aliens we blew up. And – you're aliens, both of you. And I'm just a physics student teacher who knows a lot less that I thought I did. Maybe some other time, but right now I just – I can't."

With that, Evan backed out of the TARDIS. The Doctor nodded to him respectfully. "Goodbye, Evan Kirke."

Evan nodded quickly, before turning and walking briskly away. Jenny watched him turn the corner in the direction of the school before shaking her head.

"Well," she said brightly, "Hello, Dad."

The smile that lit up his face was bright enough to light the entire blacked-out city, and Jenny found herself enveloped in a gigantic hug. "Hello, Jenny," he whispered into her hair. "I've missed you."

- x -

Evan's hand was already resting on the door handle, ready to enter the school, when he realized just what he was doing. Had he honestly just walked away from the chance of a lifetime in order to return to _school_? (Return as a teacher, not a student, of course). He could have gone anywhere (and anywhen) in all the universe, and he'd chosen to return to the school?

"That was stupid," he said aloud, and hissed as the wound on his cheek throbbed in protest.

It wasn't just his cheek that hurt, either. His hands were trembling with exhaustion, and his legs felt as though he couldn't even stand. What he needed was a good, long sleep, and some pain medication, and some tea. _Medicine first, with the tea. Then the nap..._

"Kirke! There you are. Where _have_ you been?"

Evan was startled out of his musings by the arrival of Mr. Johanson. He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say - He'd been following an alien? He'd destroyed a computer-human thing from the future that was controlling the Earth's power? – but was spared as the principal asked another question.

"What happened to your face?"

Not spared after all, then. Was there any way to explain he had been caught in an explosion without causing further alarm? Probably not.

He finally settled on the easiest response he could come up with in his present state. "It's a long story."

Mr. Johanson frowned, but held the door open for Evan to come inside. Was it really that easy to rejoin his normal, ordinary, plodding life?

"Hurry up, Evan. There's glass everywhere and we need to get it cleaned before school tomorrow."

_School tomorrow. _With a sudden shock, Evan realized he couldn't do it. His face set in determination, and he lifted his chin boldly. "Sir," he announced grandly, "I'm afraid there's somewhere I need to be."

He took off at a run down the sidewalk, praying he hadn't left it too late. Where he got the extra energy, Evan had no idea, but he didn't question it. A corner of his mind recognized that this was probably the fastest he'd ever run, although it wasn't much of an achievement, given how little he ran on a day to day basis.

He rounded the last corner, and there it was – the TARDIS, right where he'd left it. Just a little blue box, with the whole world inside it.

Evan ran forward, and then slowed as a loud, grinding sound filled the air. The light on top was flashing, and Evan watched with wide eyes as the box faded from sight.

"But I was going to come with you," Evan mumbled stupidly, and his shoulders sagged in disappointment. All the excitement, all the adventure, and he'd walked away.

"'Spose I am meant for mediocrity," he sighed, and trudged away.


	13. An Epilogue of Sorts

_**A/N: **Now correct me if I'm wrong, but twelve regenerations means thirteen Doctors, right? Yes, I did plan to have this thirteen chapters long. _

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_Chapter Thirteen: An Epilogue of Sorts_

There is a ginger-haired woman who lives in an ordinary house with her husband and daughter. She seems quite ordinary to her neighbours, although once-upon-a-time she was the most important woman in all the universe. She doesn't remember this now, and few knew to begin with.

The woman might not remember, but there are others who do, and one might call them her guardian angels, for they watch over her and kept her safe that she might lead her ordinary life in peace. Her grandfather is one, and her mother another, and there is a man whom she no longer knows who shows up every once in a while just to watch from the distance. The woman never notices; neither does anyone else on the street, although once a passer-by frowned at the sight of the man leaning against an old, blue police box as he regarded the woman across the street sweeping up the broken glass of her porch bulbs.

"What are you doing?" the passerby had asked curiously.

The man had straightened and pushed his hands into his pockets. "Watching," he sighed, and then, of all things, he opened the door to the police box and stepped inside.

- x -

Jenny's face was still white, as it had been since learning of Donna's fate. She was quiet and solemn, more so than he had ever seen before. "Is she alright?" she whispered as he made his way slowly toward the console.

"She's fine," the Doctor said shortly.

He saw out of the corner of his eye how she opened her mouth to say more before thinking better of it. With quick, precise movements lacking his usual energy, the Doctor readied the TARDIS to depart.

_Oh, Donna! _He spared a moment to silently grieve again for his lost companion, trapped in the fog of forgotten memories. Then it was time to shut the Donna Noble drawer in his expansive mind and concentrate on the future. (Jenny! Adventures!) It was getting harder to close these drawers, and the Time Lord had to throw all his weight against it before it would fasten.

When he looked up again to Jenny, a carefree grin was in careful position on his face. "So, Jenny, where shall it be? We can travel anywhere and anywhen in the universe – all the worlds are waiting to be explored. What shall it be?"

Jenny took a breath in excitement, and then paused. "I don't even know," she laughed. "You pick."

"Me? Nah." The Doctor waggled his head, and then reached out to twist a knob and pull a lever. "We'll let the TARDIS decide. Ready, set..." His hand hovered over a large, green button. "Go!"

With a twitch and the beautiful, wonderful hum, the TARDIS left twenty-first century Britain and flew into the time stream. Jenny laughed with delight and gripped a post tightly with both hands as she fought for balance.

It was over sooner than the Doctor would have expected, as though the TARDIS had had something specific in mind. He watched fondly as Jenny picked herself off the floor and ran to the doors.

"Is it safe to go out?"

He shrugged. Could have checked the screen, of course, but at the moment it felt almost like cheating. The Doctor nodded to the door. "Open it and find out."

She did as he directed and stepped out into the dark night. The Doctor followed, curious as to where the TARDIS had chosen to bring them for Jenny's first trip.

It was dawn, the sun just beginning to light a familiar alley, but one the Doctor was unable to place. A figure was standing a short distance away, staring up in awe at the blue police box.

The Doctor felt his mouth drop open at the improbability of it all. It was mad; it made so little sense. He must be seeing things...

"Hello, Evan," Jenny said cheerfully, as though it was no surprise to her.

"Hello, Jenny, Doctor," the boy replied. He smiled rather sheepishly and asked, "Mind if I come for a ride?"

_Fin_

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_And that is the end. Thank you all for the reviews and favs and alerts, they were all quite inspiring. What's up next for me? Well - I'm still posting The Owl, the Wizard, and the Nightgown, a HP fic (check it out!) and am also working on a new Narnia multichapter fic. And while the poll on my page is still running, at the moment it looks as though most popular is the DW/Narnia crossover, in which the Doctor and his companion Susan Pevensie meet Jack, and there is more than a little flirting on both sides. Just watch - it'll be up soon._

_Thanks again for reading!_


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